<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Unburden by AllThoseOtherWorlds</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23221858">Unburden</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllThoseOtherWorlds/pseuds/AllThoseOtherWorlds'>AllThoseOtherWorlds</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Confession Dial (Doctor Who), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, Gen, Post-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, The Doctor (Doctor Who) Uses They/Them Pronouns</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:20:11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,061</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23221858</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllThoseOtherWorlds/pseuds/AllThoseOtherWorlds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After the secrets about their past come to light, the Doctor thinks about the most recent time their people have hurt them. Fortunately, their friends are there to provide support.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Thirteenth Doctor &amp; Yasmin Khan &amp; Graham O'Brien &amp; Ryan Sinclair</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Unburden</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I really enjoyed the Timeless Child reveal and wanted to write something quick about it! This is ignoring the Judoon. If you want to believe they didn't happen, that's fine. If you want to believe they did happen and the Doctor escaped, that's also fine.</p><p>The Doctor uses they/them pronouns because I said so</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“What’s that you’ve got there?” Yaz asked, nodding at the small object the Doctor was turning over and over in their hands.</p><p>“What?” they asked, starting out of their reverie.</p><p>“That little… compass thing,” Yaz said. “What is it? If you don’t mind me asking.”</p><p>“Oh, it’s nothing,” the Doctor said. “Just… bad memories.”</p><p>The Doctor had returned to them a week ago, miraculously alive, and predictably unwilling to share any details. They’d been quiet, and pensive, and everyone was starting to get concerned. They had collectively decided to let the Doctor be for a while, but they also wanted to be there to support them - which was very difficult when they had next to no information.</p><p>With that in mind, Yaz glanced over at Graham and Ryan, who were watching from across the console room. Ryan nodded and Graham raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly at the Doctor.</p><p>“Are you sure you’re okay, Doctor?” Yaz asked. “It’s just that we’re worried about you, is all. I don’t know what happened out there, on your home planet, but-”</p><p>“It’s not,” the Doctor said.</p><p>“It’s not what?” Graham asked.</p><p>“Not my home planet,” the Doctor said. “Apparently.”</p><p>“What happened out there?” Ryan asked. “We want to help you.”</p><p>The Doctor sighed. “This thing I’m holding,” they said instead of answering. “It’s called a confession dial. It’s a sort of purification ritual, meant to be used in the moments before a Time Lord’s death.”</p><p>“Doctor, are you-”</p><p>“Oh, I’m fine, sorry,” they said, cutting Yaz off with a wave of their hand. “It’s just, that’s what it’s meant for. But if you use it the wrong way, you can trap someone in it and force confessions out of them. It’s unthinkable - it was never meant for that, and using it in such a way…” they trailed off for a moment, flipping it over again in their hands. Finally, they looked up. “A while back, someone used it that way on me.”</p><p>“That’s awful!” Yaz said. She wasn’t certain she was following the train of logic here entirely, but if the Doctor was finally opening up she wasn’t going to risk messing it up by asking now.</p><p>“I escaped,” the Doctor said. “But it made me wonder.” They sighed. “I never really… fit in, as a child. I ran away from my- from Gallifrey a long time ago. A lot has happened since then, but I always thought I was one of them, even if I was a runaway.”</p><p>The Doctor was silent for a moment. Yaz exchanged glances with Ryan and Graham, none of them sure what to say. It was clear that they still didn’t have the full story. The Doctor was staring off into the distance, almost as if they’d forgotten they were there. A moment later, though, they kept talking.</p><p>“When the Master and I were on Gallifrey, he showed me something,” they said. “Something about my past. I wasn’t born on Gallifrey at all, but somewhere else, I don’t know where. They found me, used me, <em>tested</em> me, all so they could use <em>my</em> genetics to give them immortality! I have so many years of memories I never knew of and can’t access, and it’s <em>their</em> fault. And now they’re all dead, and I can’t even confront them about it.” Their hand tightened on the confession dial. “I keep wondering if this is proof that they never really accepted me at all. For so many years I thought they were all gone and it was my fault, and I kept the memory of them all as though it was my duty. And now they really are gone, and my memories are a lie.”</p><p>They took a couple of deep breaths and slowly placed the confession dial on the Tardis console. “I’m sorry,” they said. “I shouldn’t have burdened you lot with all that, there’s nothing you can do about it.”</p><p>“Hey now, that’s not true,” Graham said. “You’re our friend, Doc. We’re here for you.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Ryan said. “We want to help.”</p><p>“You can’t,” the Doctor said. “I don’t know if anyone can, anymore. The only people who knew the truth are dead”</p><p>“Just because we can’t get your memories or your people back doesn’t mean we can’t help,” Yaz said.</p><p>“We’re your friends,” Graham told them. “Emotional support is what friends do.”</p><p>The Doctor smiled. It didn’t quite reach their eyes, but it was a start. “Thank you, all of you,” they said. “There’s just so much I don’t know. Where was I born? What did they erase from my memory? How did they make me a child again after they did it? How many of them knew? If they copied my regenerative abilities, what else did they take from me? So many questions, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get the answers. And if there’s one thing I hate, it’s not knowing. I have a right to know my own life”</p><p>“’Course you do,” Graham said. “But you didn’t know before all this happened, and now the only difference is that you <em>know</em> that you didn’t know, right? So you have more information now than you did before, at any rate.”</p><p>“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it,” the Doctor said.</p><p>“And maybe we’ll find out somehow anyway,” Ryan said. “You never know with you.”</p><p>“And Doctor, even if you can’t get your home back - Gallifrey or the other one - you still have us,” Yaz said.</p><p>The Doctor smiled, a little more genuinely this time. “Thanks,” they said. “That… that means a lot to me.”</p><p>There was a moment of silence, then they shook their head. “Enough of that for now,” they said. “I need a distraction. You lot, pick a planet - we’ve got exploring to do.”</p><p>“Are you going to give us a list to pick from?” Ryan asked.</p><p>“How about you just come up with a name and I’ll find the closest planet to it?” the Doctor asked. “That might be fun.”</p><p>Yaz watched them talk, thinking about everything that had happened. It was a lot for anyone to take in, she thought. But if there was anyone who could figure out the jumble of questions it presented, it was the Doctor. Still, a little help from their friends wouldn’t hurt, and she was glad they could be there to provide it.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>